From – Jody Pickens, District Attorney General, 26th Judicial District
On December 31, 2022, Jackson Police Officer Joseph Shephard was patrolling the area of East Forest Avenue around 2:13 a.m., when he noticed a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed.
The vehicle did not immediately pull over but instead turned onto Martin Street, where someone from inside the vehicle threw a black bag out of the passenger side door. Officer Shephard conducted a traffic stop and made contact with the occupants of the vehicle at 1318 Martin Street.
He discovered thirty-four (34) year-old James Eddie Randle III, of Jackson, Tennessee, to be the driver. Upon searching the vehicle, Officer Shepherd located a SCCY 9mm handgun in the glove compartment. Officers located and searched the bag that was thrown from the vehicle and seized approximately 200 grams of methamphetamine, seventy-two (72) clear sandwich bags, ninety-three (93) fentanyl blue M30 pills, two (2) digital scales, and a plastic cup with crystal residue.
Randle was also in possession of marijuana and $7,250 in denominations consistent with the sale of narcotics. At the time of the traffic stop, Randle was a convicted felon in Tennessee for Aggravated Assault and Sexual Battery from 2015.
On October 2, 2023, a Madison County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Randle for being a Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm with a Prior Violent Felony Conviction, Possession of Methamphetamine with Intent to Sell and/or Deliver, Possession of Fentanyl with Intent to Sell and/or Deliver, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Reckless Driving, and Driving on a Suspended and/or Revoked License.
On October 1, 2024, the State of Tennessee, represented by Assistant District Attorney General Brad Champine, tried Randle on the indictment. After a two-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged the following day.
On June 4, 2025, Judge Donald Allen sentenced Randle to twenty-eight (28) years in prison.
He will serve approximately seventeen (17) years in prison before being eligible for parole.
“When the Jackson Police Department takes a felon off the street who is selling dangerous drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine and protecting his illegal business with a firearm, they save untold lives,” said District Attorney General Jody Pickens. “I hope that drug dealers and felons take note of this sentence and that they understand that when they engage in the illegal business of selling poison in our community or choose to carry a firearm after being convicted of violent felonies, they gamble with their own life.
“There are only two eventual outcomes for convicted felons that sell drugs while armed, and those outcomes are prison or death. It would have been better for all if the Defendant had chosen differently and changed his ways after being sentenced to prison the first time.”
(PHOTO: James Eddie Randle III)
